For the Haiku Marathon, held Wednesday in an art gallery in the South Loop, not cold, nor wind, nor the gloom of a Chicago winter day could hold back the flow of poets, performing at a rate of one poem every 10 seconds. Or if one were a haiku writer, one might say: Swarm of wordy bees/The hive has three microphones/Keeping harsh air out. Organized by Julie Caffey, director of the Hokin Gallery on the Columbia College campus at 623 S. Wabash Ave., the event squeezed several hundred fans into a small art space and coffeehouse.

For more than 20 years, artists who have created temporary pieces out of doors have confronted the problem of translating the experience into a gallery setting. The usual way has been to show photographs accompanied by explanatory texts, and this is one of the methods employed by Doug DeWitt in his exhibition at the Mindy Oh Gallery. But the artist also has created a number of constructions from found objects and artifacts associated with his installations, and these poetic little relics attempt a distillation of the original events.

Psychic Sidney Friedman, who calls himself "The Haiku Psychic" because of his "poetic" predictions, has been right about a few things: He predicted that the Denver Broncos would win the Super Bowl, the death of Gianni Versace and the release of a Chinese dissident. But though his prediction accuracy rate might exceed 70 percent, as far as we're concerned, Friedman is 100 percent wrong. No, we're not talking about his straight-faced prognostication that the Cubs will play in the World Series this year.

For dreary subways, add a little poetry; it will come to shine. It's a 17-syllable recipe for city beautification that a group of students from Columbia College and Jones College Prep have taken to heart over the last few months. The budding architects, artists and poets gathered their talents and time to transform the Red Line's Harrison subway station into a gallery of haiku, a form of Japanese poetry characterized by a three-line structure of five, seven and five syllables.

For dreary subways, add a little poetry; it will come to shine. It's a 17-syllable recipe for city beautification that a group of students from Columbia College and Jones College Prep has taken to heart over the last few months. The budding architects, artists and poets gathered their talents and time to transform the Red Line's Harrison subway station into a gallery of haiku, a form of Japanese poetry characterized by a three-line structure of five, seven and five syllables. The transformation of the South Loop station into a poetry arts showcase is part of the Chicago Transit Authority's Adopt-a-Station program, launched in 1997 to develop partnerships with local businesses and community organizations.

When I think of you I smile and picture you dead In a shallow grave "I like the dark side of poetry," explains "Pirate Mike" Amaro before reading his next poem off a crumpled piece of paper: Shore leave and hookers Lost weekend in foreign port Tattoos and STDs "I enjoy freaking people out," says the 37-year-old Chicagoan. "Tonight I got a couple of gasps, which is nice." Amaro should consider himself lucky. He's one of the few readers at this open-mike haiku slam who elicit a response from the audience at Filter, a Wicker Park coffee shop.

Like most defenders of democracy, I spend hours each day on the Internet, vigilantly watching for news that might pose a threat to America. It was through that careful research that I learned of a nefarious plot that sent a chill through my oft-chilled spine. An unmanned NASA spacecraft scheduled to depart for Mars in November will be carrying a DVD filled with … brace yourself … haikus. That's right. NASA is recklessly hurling more than 1,000 haikus into orbit around the Red Planet aboard a craft that will study the Martian atmosphere.

Fortuitously / friends sent Spam haiku this way / Har! column fodder! Yes, I'm aware that the above is not, technically, haiku; that haiku--the non-rhyming Japanese poetry most often written in the three-line, five/seven/five syllabic pattern--traditionally addresses seasons, imagery in nature and the like; and that the more accurate term would be senryu, a poetic form with wider latitude. But "haiku" will do / terminologically / for now, poem snobs. Most of us learned to write it in elementary school.